i've been telling you i was gonna post how matt and i met, and then remet years later. i'm surprised you've never heard this one. i kinda tell it to everyone. even strangers. but maybe you just wanted to read it again, i don't know.

it all started with ralph davidson palmer, or ralphie walnuts as i've been known to call him. he's one of matt's theta chi fraternity brothers, one of my former co-workers and our forever friend.

i was working at mullen at the time, with ralph. and even though kelly cheung and i were far too long out of college to be attending a frat party, when ralph invited us to a house party he was attending as an alumni (alumnae?), we went. (ok, i was far too long out of college. whatever, age police.)

i'm not going to get into the details of a frat party. this is a family site. but, imagine animal house, old school or abc family's greek and you've pretty much got it.

this was before the days that cell phone numbers are automatically printed on business cards. so when i saw matt and thought he was pretty cute, i scrawled my cell phone number on the back of one of my cards and gave it to him.

lo and behold, the fates parted, the stars aligned, and ... matt never called. we saw each other every once in awhile over the next 3 years through ralph. but we'd each settled down into long-term relationships and just gave each other a friendly "hello."

then came labor day weekend, 2010. and, once again, ralph brought us together. but this time we were both single. the three of us ate at bib's downtown and then met friends out at single brothers and moved on to rec billiards. it was an amazing time. i have an entire facebook album dedicated to it.

and matt ASKED for my phone number. because who keeps a business card for 3 years? this time he called. and we went on our first date the next weekend.

and when he came to pick me up, what did he have on him?

this is, in fact, the actual card. we still have it.

my 3-year-old business card with my completely illegible cell phone number scribbled on it. (that's what you get for scrawling your number on the back of a business card in the dark. no wonder he never called.) this is the point in the story that most people say "awwwwww, he kept it?!?"

and that, family and friends, is why (even though we didn't dtr until the collins' wedding celebration the following april) we celebrate the weekend after labor day as our anniversary and why we've chosen that as our wedding date.

so now you know ;)

look for my next installment: the proposal. coming to a computer screen near you soon-ish.

xoxo,the bride

p.s. special thanks to erin clake lesica, andrew pitman and the aforementioned kelly cheung for sitting with me at the fox and the hound in winston-salem and giving me day-of first date pointers back in 2010.